Height loss is commonly associated with spinal fractures, typically referred to as vertebral compression fractures. A large segment of osteoporotic patients experience vertebral compression fractures, with an estimated 700,000 such fractures occurring annually. Kyphoplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that is used to treat vertebral compression fractures using a combination of vertebroplasty utilizing bone cement with balloon catheter technology. The kyphoplasty procedure restores height of the collapsed spinal bone, which diminishes associated back pain.
In a kyphoplasty procedure, an inflatable balloon tamp (IBT) is inserted inside a fractured vertebral body. The IBT is inflated to create a cavity that is filled with bone cement to restore height of the vertebral body.
Using conventional kyphoplasty procedures, the bone cement cannot be injected into the vertebral body cavity next to an inflated IBT at high pressure without risking a loss of pressure due to the adjacent IBT rupturing. This restricts the amount of height restoration that can be achieved from the procedure. This disclosure describes an improvement over these prior art technologies.